The slate belt is great too but appreciation isn’t as much as the Valley.

Aside from your first house hack, start off small and get a few projects under your belt, by  doing this you will build your experience and you will get more favorable terms when financing.

D and F class.you can find those type of deals in most rust belt cities worst neighborhoods and mid west and deed south. all of those areas will have these types of properties.  

We can see these wild swings in many markets in the mid west and bigger rust belt cities were what were fabulous neighborhoods with good rents.. the homes or apartments are boarded.. one still has to choose wisely to protect your investmentJust like many sellers of homes will put an appreciation number to add into the mix with the ROI numbers they are touting and its usually a small number but it puffs the sales brochure and folks will fixate on that higher number.. when any modest gain in values is eaten up in sales costs and usually unexpected cap ex. or extended vacancy

I would go ahead and finish the CPA exam, it would be a nice thing to have under your belt.

I would like to partner with other Maryland investors to get few deals under my belt.

@George Blower, thanks for the info on Solo 401k!

I'm in California and wondering if this is worth while to add to my tool belt as an investor that wants to help out homeowners. 

I work as a Carpenter apprentice at the moment and will be fully licensed within a year, 5200 hours under my belt when done.

The San Diego real estate market is so competitive here that I wouldn't work with anyone for less than 25% as a newbie wholesaler with selling under my belt.